The last few months have been both exciting and challenging for all of us at the Regional Delegation in New Delhi. The year started with the successful completion of the Enable Makeathon – a 60-day process which saw people with disabilities, engineers, technology and design experts, the scientific and innovation community and mentors, come together to develop solutions and products in response to specific needs identified by and for people with physical disabilities in rural settings. The Enable Makeathon was designed to work ‘with’ people with disabilities and not just ‘for’ them as they continued to be involved at every stage of the process, whether as challenge-setters, designers, users and also judges. In line with the Accessible India Campaign, which aims at better access in public places for people with disabilities, we look forward to this resonating with the Indian authorities as well.

We brought 2015 to a close with the 2nd National Wheelchair Basketball Championship held in the Indian capital. For the second year in a row the ICRC, along with its partners, popularized the game and more than 200 players participated. The championship not only showcased the strength and courage of people with disabilities to overcome challenges, but also highlighted the immense potential and talent they possess to make it big in this sport and represent the country at international fora in the future. The attendance and words of encouragement by the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, Shri Thaawar Chand Gehlot, and other dignitaries will certainly inspire more people with disability to take to wheelchair basketball and for sport to be made an important part of the social inclusion agenda.

In November, we continued to recognize the work of the media in covering exceptional humanitarian stories through our annual awards. In its ninth year in 2015, the annual awards for journalists, in partnership with the Press Institute of India, are becoming an important platform for independent journalists with most of the awards going to those unaffiliated to a media house. The Asia Reporters Meeting hosted in New Delhi earlier in October provided the opportunity to engage with media persons from over 10 countries.

After successfully conducting a similar course around the world for the past 30 years, the ICRC along with its partners launched the first Health Emergencies in Large Populations (H.E.L.P.) course in India in October which focussed on managing relief operations in disasters. It was a privilege to partner with the Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) and it was extremely encouraging to receive participants from ten countries for this course.

While 2015 was a year of achievements, it was also the year when ICRC lost a longtime friend – Dr Satya Paul Agarwal, the Secretary General (SG) of the Indian Red Cross Society. He received the Henry Dunant Medal – the highest award of the Red Cross Movement – for the exemplary work of the volunteers and staff of the national society during the devastating tsunami of 2004, and always remained a strong ally of the ICRC.

I would like to thank everyone for their support for the cause and ideals of the ICRC during the year gone by. We entered the current year with the conviction of continuing our commitment to humanitarian work.

Mary Werntz

Head of Regional Delegation

ICRC New Delhi